Pat B. Clark was a lifelong resident of Clarksville and descended from several of the founding families of Red River County. He knew everyone and based his work largely on his own memories of the early settlers and by talking to the surviving "old folks" about their own recollections and family stories. He was not in any way an academic and included what are obviously local legends and folklore, but he did make an apparent effort to be careful and critical. There are no footnotes and numerous minor errors have been found, but -- largely because of its age -- this is still the basic non-scholarly work on the early history of the Red River district.